Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
DETECTION OF ANTIBODIES TO HIV USING SYNTHETIC PEPTIDES DERIVED FROM THE GP41 ENVELOPE PROTEIN
Vaccines 87. Modern Approaches to New Vaccines: Prevention of AIDS and Other Viral, Bacterial, and Parasitic Diseases. Chanock RM et al, eds. New York, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, p. 188-93, 1987.. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE ICDB/88647977 Rosen J; Hom YL; Whalley A; Smith R; Naso RB; Johnson and Johnson Biotechnology Center, La Jolla, CA 92038
Abstract:
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is generally accepted as the etiologic agent responsible for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and its associated disorders. The serum of most patients (pts) diagnosed with AIDS or AIDS-related complex (ARC), as well as HIV-infected individuals with no apparent disease, contains antibodies that specifically recognize HIV. In an effort to define critical, immunologically active epitopes for the development of both diagnostic and therapeutic products, 20 oligopeptides, each 15-20 amino acids in length, were synthesized from the published sequences of the gag and env-lor genes of HIV. These regions of the viral genome were selected for synthesis of oligopeptides according to one or more of the following criteria: (1) conservation of sequences among the human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III), lymphadenopathy-associated virus, and AIDS-associated retrovirus; (2) hydrophilicity; and (3) content of two cysteine residues in close proximity. Reactivity of pt sera with peptides was examined. A competition assay to reduce false positives further was performed. Reactivity of the problematic sera in the peptide assay was tested. A combination of two synthetic oligopeptides derived from the amino acid sequence of HIV gp41(env) can reproducibly detect antibodies in sera of AIDS and ARC pts when used as the solid-phase immunoadsorbent in an ELISA. The specificity and sensitivity of the peptide-specific assay were comparable to those of commercially available kits when tested against sera from normal individuals and pts exposed to HIV. An immunoreactive epitope represented by these oligopeptides could be narrowed down to only seven amino acid residues. A competition assay using these oligopeptides has been established to distinguish between sera that react specifically with these peptides and false-positive sera. Sera that by Western blot analysis are immunoreactive only with core-related proteins (p24, p55) are positive in the oligopeptide assay for antibody. These results demonstrate that synthetic oligopeptides can be used as the basis for an accurate, convenient, and safe immunoassay for HIV antibody. (6 Refs)
Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/DIAGNOSIS/*IMMUNOLOGY Antibodies, Viral/*ANALYSIS AIDS-Related Complex/IMMUNOLOGY Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Human HIV/*IMMUNOLOGY Peptides/*IMMUNOLOGY Retroviridae Proteins/*IMMUNOLOGY Viral Envelope Proteins/*IMMUNOLOGY MEETING PAPER
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
